Special Legislative Session to Address Captions for Constitutional Amendments

Raleigh, N.C. – The state General Assembly will convene this week to adopt a fair and nonpartisan approach to captioning the six proposed constitutional amendments for North Carolina voters this November, after state House and Senate leaders obtained signatures from the necessary three-fifths majority of each chamber to convene a special session.

State lawmakers already provided short titles and ballot questions for the six constitutional amendments that clearly and concisely describe the proposals.

Opposition to the proposals, however, is fueling political influence on the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission charged with accurately describing the questions with apolitical captions for voters.

State House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said the special session was necessary because the commission appears to be delaying its duties and contemplating a more extensive naming process outside the scope of its duties:

“The General Assembly already approved short titles of the constitutional amendments that accurately describe their impact,” Moore said, “and must prevent outside attempts to politicize what should be a quick and straightforward administrative process by the commission.”

The commission has never written a ballot caption before yet planned to meet until the last possible days to act during the week of August 6, 2018.

A recent survey of likely North Carolina voters found broad majority support for several of the proposed constitutional amendments.

Background

During the legislative process, the General Assembly provided short titles for these amendments that the Commission could cleanly and clearly adopt: